


What Was Necessary

by sylviasplath



Series: Lessons on Revenge [2]
Category: The Following
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Death, M/M, Mentions of previous dub-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2014-04-09
Packaged: 2018-01-18 18:51:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1439065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sylviasplath/pseuds/sylviasplath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryan tries to sort out what happened the night before. Mike finds Luke and bad things happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Was Necessary

**Author's Note:**

> I was overwhelmed with the love for Use Me Up, so thank you! I got a couple comments asking for a sequel and this is what Ryan & Mike came up with.
> 
> This picks up the morning after the events in Use Me Up and continues through S2 Ep 11. We are firmly in AU territory here. For those of you worried by the tags, rest assured that Hardston is very much alive at the end of this story.
> 
> If you're not into dub-con, you won't find that in this work (just mentions of it previously) and it can pretty much be read as a stand-alone.

Pain. It was the first thing that Ryan was aware of as he slowly regained consciousness. It seemed to be everywhere and all over.

Ryan groaned in despair as he rolled over on to his side to try and quell the pain. When the pain wouldn’t stop, he exhaled slowly and took a moment to take stock of his situation. His massive headache was the only thing that he could distinguish from the rest of the pain. His entire body felt sore all over. In fact, he felt very similar to when he had gotten hit by that cab except that this time the pain was localized in different places of his body.

Ryan racked his brain, trying to remember anything about the night before that would explain the pain. It took a few minutes but then he came upon a memory of himself rummaging through the cabinet trying to find his secret stash of vodka. Well, that explained some of the pain. He remembered making quite an effort to try and finish off that bottle. And since he had been sober for a few months before that…

_Ugh, what a hangover_ , Ryan thought to himself.

So that explained why he felt like his head was going to explode. But he didn’t remember getting hit by a vehicle. Ryan struggled to remember just why he had been drinking in the first place and then –

_Holy shit._

Everything came flooding back to him in an instant and suddenly it all clicked into place.

_So this is what it feels like to get fucked into a wall. Good to know._

Ryan cracked open an eye and glanced around. He was alone in his own bed. He let out a sigh, opening his other eye, and steeled himself to get out of bed. He was fairly certain that the reason that he had drank so much was that he had been waiting for Mike to finally emerge from the bathroom. He couldn’t remember talking to Mike before going to bed though, which meant that this… _thing_ between them was unresolved.

Ryan pushed himself out of bed and immediately regretted it. A strong wave of nausea swept over him but he pushed it down. He just needed to drink some water and he would be fine. He stumbled out of his bedroom in nothing but pajama pants and plodded over to the fridge. He could see that Mike was seemingly asleep on the couch, eyes closed and mouth partially open.

Ryan opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. He took a couple of sips before guzzling the entire bottle. He put the empty water bottle on the counter and reached for another, finally shutting the fridge door. He glanced at the counter and could see the almost-empty vodka bottle with two glasses next to it. Ryan checked his memory again but was sure that he didn’t talk to Mike before he went to bed. Mike must have helped himself after Ryan went to sleep. Ryan didn’t blame him.

Ryan glanced at the counter again and knew that he couldn’t wait until later to get rid of the evidence, no matter how badly he felt. The last thing he needed was for Max to catch a glimpse of it should she decide to pop over for an early morning wake up call. She would be absolutely furious.

Ryan washed out the glasses and stuck them in the dishwasher, taking care to replace the bottle of vodka behind the cereal so that no one would be able to see it unless they were looking for it. He threw the empty water bottle in the trash and looked over at Mike’s sleeping form. He took a sip of his water and left it on the counter as he went to go relieve himself.

When Ryan returned from the bathroom, he wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself. He obviously needed to talk to Mike about what had happened the night before but he had no idea what to say. He grabbed his water bottle from the counter and decided to just sit in the chair near the couch and wait until Mike woke up. He could take some time to think in the meantime.

Ryan walked over to the chair and sat, staring at Mike’s back as he slept.

_What the hell had even happened last night?_

He had clearly said the wrong thing during their conversation the night before. When he had brought up Mike’s father, he had expected him to get upset. A shouting match, a fistfight, Mike storming off… he had been prepared for those outcomes. But he had never expected for the kid to fuck him into a wall.

And not that he didn’t enjoy it, because he did. He wasn’t quite sure what that said about him. He only knew that when he thought more about it in detail, all the blood from his body started rushing to his cock and wouldn’t _that_ make for an interesting morning-after conversation? There was obviously more than one reason why he hadn’t stopped the kid.

“Are you watching me sleep?” Mike’s voice drifted over to him from the couch, the sharpness of his tone dulled by sleep.

“No,” Ryan responded automatically. He tried to correct himself. “Well, maybe.” That sounded creepy. He took a breath before he spoke again. “I was waiting for you to wake up so that we could talk. About last night.” That just sounded pathetic so he stopped speaking and waited for Mike to respond.

“You want to talk about last night?” Mike rolled over on the couch and looked at him balefully. “Oh God, how do you drink that stuff?” Mike clutched his head. Evidently Ryan wasn’t the only one who was experiencing a hangover.

“I just want to make sure that you’re okay,” Ryan said roughly. He reached over to hand Mike his water bottle. The younger man sat up on the couch before accepting the water with a nod, proceeding to drink half the bottle.

When he was done, Mike glanced at Ryan before looking away. “Ryan, I’m sorry about last night. I… That wasn’t appropriate. I’m sorry.”

The self-loathing was written all over Mike’s face. Ryan couldn’t bear to see it there, his own guilt rearing its ugly head yet again. “Mike, I shouldn’t have said those things about you and your dad. I’m the one who should be apologizing. You were… provoked.”

Mike let out a bitter laugh and Ryan felt a shiver run down his spine as he recognized it from the night before. “Ryan, I raped you in your own apartment and you’re excusing my behavior by saying you provoked me?”

“No, that’s – that is not what happened,” Ryan argued emphatically.

Mike shook his head before responding softly, “Okay. So what exactly happened then, Ryan?”

Ryan tried to catch Mike’s eye before responding but Mike was looking everywhere but at him. “Mike, look at me.”

Mike shook his head again before staring directly at Ryan. “What?”

“I wanted it, Mike,” Ryan almost whispered.

Neither of them spoke as they continued to stare at each other. It felt like an eternity until –

“Okay. So now what?” Mike responded quietly, his voice wavering and unsure.

“I just – Nothing. I just wanted you to know. You don’t have to beat yourself up about it,” Ryan replied, suddenly harsh, before getting up out of the chair. “I’m going to get in the shower. I have to meet Carrie Cooke and make sure she isn’t planning to blow open the investigation by reporting on our little encounter with Dr. Strauss.”

Ryan stalked over to the bathroom and closed the door, considering a moment before locking it. He felt hot all over and completely out of sorts. More happened last night than he was openly willing to admit. In the privacy of the bathroom however, he looked at himself in the mirror and muttered, “Christ, Hardy. Pull yourself together.”

***

Mike tried to focus on everything but Ryan over the next few days. It was exceedingly difficult since there was more than one occasion when they were left alone together, but Mike didn’t dare talk about the incident again. He tried to be as professional as he could and on those few instances when he could almost see Ryan wanting to broach the subject, Mike shot him a look that said, _Let’s not do this again._ And instead Ryan would ask him about the case or the weather and Mike would breathe a sigh of relief.

But then he no longer had to try to ignore Ryan because it was Lily Gray that had massacred the people in that bakery and his _obsession_ came roaring back. He simply couldn’t think of anything _but_ Lily Gray.

It was like a switch had gone off in his head. He was so obsessed with getting to Luke that he now found Ryan to be merely an obstacle in his quest for revenge.

“Ryan,” he called, as he walked over to him. “That’s everybody that was on the floor. Hospital administration is checking IDs.” He continued in a rush, “I say we go floor to floor. You take the north stairway and I’ll take the south.” Mike had been trying to find a way to ditch Ryan since they discovered Luke’s room was empty. This was the perfect opportunity.

Ryan nodded in agreement at Mike’s suggestion before looking at the younger man pointedly. “Be careful.”

Mike nodded in return and set off for the stairs.

It didn’t take him long before he saw blood. He followed the trail down the stairs and exited the stairwell. The floor was deserted and he walked down the hallway, looking for any more signs of Luke’s passage. He was rewarded in his search when he spotted more blood outside of a door marked ‘Do Not Enter’. He tried to open the door but it was locked. Glancing around and seeing no one, Mike threw caution to the wind and unholstered his gun, shooting at the doorknob. The door creaked open and Mike entered, keeping his gun drawn. It was so dark that he was unable to see so he pulled out his phone, opening the app to use it as a flashlight.

_Small wonders for smart phones_ , he thought to himself.

It took him several minutes to move through the lower levels of the hospital. As he slowly moved through the area, he examined his surroundings. He appeared to be in a basement-type area under the hospital. It was quiet and there were no longer any signs that Luke or anyone helping him had been through the area – until he heard a door close up ahead of him. It couldn’t have been too far away and he tried to clear the area a little faster when he spotted a door to his right. Before he could investigate further, the silence was broken by Ryan calling him over the walkie-talkie.

“Hey Mike, where are you?”

Ryan must have completed his search. Mike looked down at the walkie-talkie and hesitated before shutting it off without responding.

Mike looked around. He was itching to open that door but he couldn’t help but feel like there was someone else there with him. He tried to be as quiet as possible as he moved toward the metal shelving rack that was to the left of the door. He poked his head around the rack and saw a man with his back to it, holding a gun as if waiting for something. He took a breath as he put his phone in his pocket before rounding the metal rack with his gun drawn.

“Drop the gun and put your hands in the air,” Mike said firmly. The man looked at him for a full second, as if sizing him up, before moving to point his gun at Mike. Mike was quicker though and he shot the other man in the shoulder before aiming lower and also shooting him in the leg. The other man shouted in pain as he dropped the gun and collapsed to the ground, attempting to hold both his shoulder and his leg but only managing to clutch his leg.

“I did warn you,” Mike muttered. He stepped toward the other man, gun still drawn, and kicked his gun away from him. “I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me where Luke is.”

The other man glared at Mike in pain but refused to speak.

“I thought so. Doesn’t matter though. I’m pretty sure I already know where he is.” Mike briefly considered what to do with him. If Luke didn’t tell him what he wanted to know, he would need this man alive.

Mike left the man where he was and rounded the metal rack. He opened the door swiftly and peered inside for a few seconds, gun drawn.

“Why, if it isn’t Agent Weston. What are you doing here? Come to assault me again?”

Mike finally spotted Luke behind a shelf filled with supplies. “Put your hands in the air.”

“It’s good to see you too,” Luke quipped.

“Put your hands in the air,” Mike restated.

“Aw, come on –“

“Shut your mouth and put your hands in the air. Your bodyguard is a little busy at the moment. And by busy I mean that he’s incapacitated. So it’s just you and me, Luke. Now, we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way. And just for the record, I’m sort of hoping you pick the hard way.” Luke was already grating on Mike’s last nerve.

“Hey, you can’t blame me for trying to escape, right?” Mike could see the nervousness creep into Luke’s eyes as he finally put his hands in the air.

“I can, actually. Now come out from behind there, slowly.”

Luke did as he was asked, hands still in the air. “So now what? Going back upstairs?” he asked hopefully.

Mike stared at Luke. “Not quite. First we’re going to have a little chat. I haven’t been allowed to come and visit you at the hospital because of our little… _misunderstanding_ the first time we met. You’re going to answer some questions for me.”

Luke looked around the basement area, as if looking for someone to help him. He visibly swallowed before cracking a fake smile. “Hey, don’t worry about it, man. We can just sweep that under the rug.”

“Where is your mother? Where is Lily Gray?”

Luke barked out a laugh before he could stop himself. “Going right in for the kill, huh? You know I’m not going to tell you that. Hell, I don’t even know.”

“But you have an idea of where she might be. You were going to meet up with her after you left here, after all.” The smile on Luke’s face disappeared. “Right. See, I told you in the beginning. We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way. Now, if you choose the hard way, Joe’s followers taught me this fun little game last year that we can play. It’s up to you, Luke.” Mike gave Luke a hard look, finally seeing real fear in Luke’s eyes for the first time.

“I don’t know anything,” Luke whispered.

“Wrong answer,” Mike spat, as he shot at Luke’s feet. Luke let out an indistinct yell as he jumped at the sound of the gun firing. “That was your last warning. Where is Lily Gray?”

“I don’t know! There was a guy who was going to meet us with the car. He was going to drive us there. I have no idea where she is!” Luke shouted, cowering against the wall with his hands still in the air.

“You don’t seem to understand what is happening here. Let me explain it to you. Your mother hunted down my father in retaliation for what I did to you. She murdered him in cold blood for no other reason than because she was upset that you were hurt and in police custody. I am not in a forgiving type of mood, so I’m only going to ask you one more time. Where is Lily Gray?”

Mike could feel himself losing control of the situation but he didn’t care. It was as if the video of his father being murdered was playing over and over again in his head. All he could think about was putting a bullet in Lily Gray’s head.

He saw Luke looking at him in fear but he didn’t speak. Mike was running out of time. Ryan would be wondering what happened to him and was probably retracing his footsteps right now. Mike was going to have to take drastic action.

The shot rang out before Luke even knew what was happening. And then he had collapsed against the wall, his leg giving out from the pain.

“We’re running out of time here, Luke. Where is she?”

Luke groaned in pain and despair. “You can’t do that!” he ground out between clenched teeth, while holding his leg.

Mike advanced on Luke slowly. “That was only round one. I may have forgotten to mention that there are a few more rounds to go.” He paused to give Luke an opening to speak but Luke only moaned in pain. “Okay, round two.” Mike raised his gun.

“Wait! Wait, don’t shoot!” Luke screamed. He held up a hand, which was bloody from clutching his wounded leg. All of the bravado that he had displayed in the woods seemed to have disappeared now that he was alone, with seemingly no chance of escape.

“You’ve got to give me something, Luke. That’s how the game works.”

“We can call her. I can call her and we can find out where she is,” Luke babbled desperately.

Mike paused to consider the offer. He tried to sense any sort of deceit in Luke’s statement but could find none. “Alright. What’s her number?”

Luke shook his head. “I don’t know.” At that, Mike shot him an exasperated look and raised his gun again. “No, I don’t know! They use burner phones so they can’t be traced! But I know how to find out.” Luke had raised his hand defensively again.

Mike looked at Luke dubiously. “Seriously? You don’t know her number but you can find out what it is? How?” When Luke said nothing, Mike continued speaking, letting his frustration seep into his voice. “Luke, I’m getting tired of bending the rules for you.”

Luke grimaced in pain before replying, his voice betraying his defeat, “You need internet access.” He paused and drew a deep breath before he continued. “You need to access the _Baltimore Gazette_. Go to the ‘Lost  & Found’ section of the Classifieds. You want to look for a subject line that says, ‘Lost: Heart Shaped Purse.’ That’s where you’ll find her phone number.”

There was silence for several seconds. The only sound in the room was Luke’s heavy breathing.

“You see, Luke? That wasn’t so hard, now was it?” And with that, Mike let off another shot. The heavy breathing suddenly stopped.

“Mike?” Mike started at the sound of his name. He could see Ryan approaching from a few hundred yards away.

“Ryan,” Mike said tentatively. He wasn’t sure what exactly Ryan had seen.

Ryan continued to approach with his gun drawn. As he got closer, he surveyed the scene in front of him, lowering his gun and looking at Mike in concern.

“Mike, what the hell happened? Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

The way that Mike said those words caused Ryan to lock eyes with the younger man. All Ryan saw was the same wild rage that he had seen in Mike’s eyes from a few nights ago. Ryan broke Mike’s gaze and swiftly walked over to Luke and knelt down, feeling for a pulse. There was none.

“Mike, what did you do?” Ryan whispered. When he heard no response he whipped his head around to look at Mike while he repeated his question, only louder this time. “Mike, what did you do?”

“I did what was necessary, Ryan,” Mike responded. His voice was cold and harsh.

Ryan stood up, stalking over to Mike and slamming him into the nearest wall. “’What was necessary’? Are you insane? Lily Gray is going to stop at nothing to kill you,” Ryan hissed, shaking Mike’s shoulders as if he could shake some sense into him.

Mike grabbed Ryan’s forearms, preventing Ryan from shaking him but not removing his grip. “Tell me you wouldn’t do the same if it were Emma Hill.”

Ryan stared at Mike for what felt like forever before he crushed his mouth to Mike’s, running his tongue across Mike’s lips seeking entrance. Within seconds, Mike opened his mouth, meeting Ryan’s tongue with his own. Ryan took the opportunity to shove his tongue into Mike’s mouth repeatedly, fucking his mouth with his tongue. Mike tightened his grip on Ryan’s forearms in response.

Eventually, Ryan pulled away from Mike, the two of them panting for breath. Ryan met Mike’s gaze, which was now smoky and filled with lust. Ryan stepped back and released his hold on Mike’s shoulders. “On your knees, Mike.” Ryan’s voice was rough and filled with need.

Mike held Ryan’s gaze as he smirked and slowly dropped to his knees without speaking. Ryan didn’t leave him alone there long, quickly dropping to his knees himself. He reached out with one hand and pulled Mike towards him, covering Mike’s lips with his own again. With his other hand he started desperately trying to remove Mike’s clothing.

Mike felt Ryan’s hand pushing his jacket off of his shoulders and Mike shrugged out of it, letting it fall to the floor. As he continued kissing Ryan, he let his own hands fall to Ryan’s belt, slowly unbuckling it and then moving to unbutton and unzip his pants. He reached his hand into Ryan’s pants, pulling out his cock and stroking it unhurriedly.

Ryan broke the kiss and his breath caught in his throat as he felt Mike pumping his cock. He felt a renewed sense of urgency to divest Mike of the rest of his clothing. Attempting to ignore Mike’s deliberate movements, Ryan haphazardly grabbed at Mike’s clothing. He yanked Mike’s shirt up to his arms, causing Mike to remove his hand from Ryan’s cock and help pull the shirt over his head. Once the shirt was gone, Ryan was undoing Mike’s pants and yanking them down his legs. He pushed Mike over on to his back so that he could pull Mike’s pants and boxers off, tossing them aside and roughly pulling Mike towards him into another kiss.

“Hands and knees,” Ryan murmured a few seconds later, slowly pulling away from Mike to help him turn over. As Mike settled into position, Ryan spat in his hand a few times and started stroking his cock.

“It’s your turn to learn a lesson, Mike,” Ryan said. He stopped stroking his cock to suck a finger into his mouth before he leaned over Mike’s back.

In response, Mike lowered his upper body into the concrete floor, grabbing wildly for his jacket so that he could rest his forehead on it instead of on the concrete. “Oh yeah? And what’s that?” Mike asked flippantly, although his voice was breathy and laced with desire.

Ryan pulled his finger out of his mouth and pressed it to Mike’s hole. Mike inhaled sharply as Ryan responded, “Revenge isn’t going to fix anything, Mike. It’s only going to make it worse.” And with that, Ryan pushed his finger into Mike slowly and deliberately, drawing a gasp from the younger man underneath him. Once his finger was all the way inside, he pulled it out and then pushed it inside again, starting up a rhythm.

Ryan took his time, enjoying the breathy sounds that were escaping from Mike’s mouth. Eventually, he added a second finger, but as he did so he heard an unintelligible whisper come from Mike. He paused.

“Mike?” Ryan asked softly.

“Ryan, please.”

He barely heard it this time. He was about to ask Mike what he was begging for when Mike reared back onto his fingers, fucking himself with them. Ryan felt his cock twitch in response. He pushed his fingers further into Mike and then stopped.

Mike let out a whine, his body moving of its own accord, rearing back onto Ryan’s fingers again. “Ryan – I need –“

Ryan leaned forward over Mike’s back, getting as close to Mike’s ear as he could before whispering, “What’s the matter, Mike? You don’t mind me getting a little of my own back, do you?” Ryan paused to let the words sink in before he continued. “I want to watch you fuck yourself on my fingers, Mike.”

Mike moaned in embarrassment and frustration. Ryan was getting back at him for the other night. This was part of the lesson.

“Come on, Mike. You looked so pretty fucking yourself on my fingers just a minute ago.” Ryan leaned back onto his knees and used his other hand to palm Mike’s cock, which was hard and leaking precome. The other man let out a yelp as he instinctually thrust into the heat of Ryan’s hand and then back, fucking himself on Ryan’s fingers. Mike moaned loudly, knowing how he must look but not caring as he continued to seek out the friction of Ryan’s hand.

Ryan thought for a moment that he might come right then, just from the sight of Mike fucking his hand and fucking himself on his fingers. It was the most erotic thing he had ever seen. After watching for a few long moments, Ryan quickly decided that he needed to fuck Mike immediately. He abruptly removed his hand from Mike’s cock and his fingers from Mike’s ass, wrenching a whimper from the young man below him. Ryan grabbed Mike’s hip with one hand while steadying his cock with the other before thrusting inside of Mike.

Mike was so hot and tight around his cock that Ryan was immediately sure that he wouldn’t be able to last very long. Ryan groaned at the sensation, bringing a hand to the ground to steady himself as he started fucking Mike with long, steady strokes. At the end of each thrust he could hear Mike let out a breathy moan, further destroying his self-control. It only took a few more thrusts before Ryan pushed his cock as far as it would go inside of Mike, spilling his seed and shallowly humping through his orgasm with a loud groan.

After a few seconds, Ryan pulled out of Mike.  Mike’s body was tense and he was breathing heavily. Ryan tugged on his shoulder, pulling the young man back against his chest. He ran his hand over his own cock to collect his come before moving his hand to Mike’s still-hard cock and stroking it idly. Mike whimpered and thrust into Ryan’s hand.

“Ryan, please,” Mike begged, his voice ragged and desperate.

Ryan toyed with the idea of making Mike beg for it, but then Mike let out another deliciously desperate _please_ and Ryan decided that that was enough. He pumped Mike’s cock with purpose now and it only took a few good strokes before Mike was coming with a moan that echoed off of the concrete walls.

Ryan held Mike as the last shudders racked his body. “You’re a good man, Mike,” Ryan whispered fiercely into Mike’s ear. “Don’t let Lily Gray take that away from you.” He moved a hand to cup Mike’s cheek, turning the younger man to face him and softly pressing his lips to Mike’s. Mike returned the kiss tentatively before he clutched at Ryan’s shoulder, deepening the kiss.

After a few moments, Ryan pulled away slowly. “We should get out of here. The boys upstairs are going to be wondering what the hell happened to us.”

Mike nodded and the two men extricated themselves from each other, getting themselves dressed and making themselves look fairly decent. Ryan finished first.

“Hey, I’m going to go upstairs and get Franklin’s men down here to do clean up. I’ll be right back.”

Mike watched Ryan leave silently as he finished getting dressed. When he was done, he stopped and listened but only heard silence. He looked around and made his way over past the metal rack. The man that had helped Luke escape was lying on the ground, unmoving. Mike leaned down and felt for a pulse. It was faint, but it was there. He must have fallen unconscious from the blood loss.

Mike heard Ryan’s words in his head, echoing Debra Parker’s last words to him. He shook his head and took out his gun.

“Not good enough.”

The shot that rang out echoed loudly against the cold, hard concrete.


End file.
